LA LAW RIP

LegalDispatch 0.22

This one hurts.

Today, we got the news that our pilot for a continuation of LA Law won’t be going forward at ABC.

As I believe I’ve mentioned, this was my dream gig, the one I’ve been readying for all my life, starting with wearing out the VHS tapes watching and re-watching and re-rewatching the episodes I dutifully recorded every Thursday night for eight years.

When a pilot doesn’t go to series, it’s usually because it’s not very good. However, that is absolutely not the case in this instance. Anthony Hemmingway directed a simply incredible hour of television (well, 44 minutes and 22 seconds). And the folks at ABC/Disney really liked the pilot — but there were two pilots that they thought would have a greater chance of success with.

My friend, the brilliant writer Michael Green, likes to say “This is a hard business for people who care.”

Michael, per usual, is right.

I take solace in two things. First, I helped write and produce the 173rd episode of LA Law. If you’d told my 16 year-old self I would one day do that, he would have asked what you were smoking.

Second, we assembled a group of talented actors, producers, and artists who came together to make a show and ended the experience as a family.

Obviously, I’ve spent the day on the phone, on email, on text commiserating with the partners who have become a family.

The cast of LA Law. Photo by Marc Guggenheim.

And now I’m toggling between writing this newsletter and doing the lettering draft of Han Solo & Chewbacca Issue 4 and finishing the first draft of PROJECT SPECTRE.

Because writers write.

Hollywood will kill you with hope. But never step down. Never surrender. Always keep moving forward.

Be good to each other.

Best,

Marc

Encino, California

5.13.22